As a follow up to last week's column on ancient wonders of our area, we will focus on human made engineering marvels of the 19th century this week. The seven historic jewels selected here can still be seen. Since there are many to choose from, I solicited the help of historians P. Thomas Carroll, Rachel Bliven and John Wolcott.

Bleecker Reservoir

Bleecker Reservoir was built in 1851 and is the biggest artificial earthwork in the city of Albany.

Most water supplies are either dammed lakes or streams or reservoirs dug into the ground. Bleeker is a man made rectangular structure built of earth above ground. It takes up two city blocks, 157,600 square feet, and when active held 32 million gallons of water in the 880 x 520 feet rectangle that was about 40 feet high. Water depth was maintained at 15 feet, and distributed to all of Albany residents west of Pearl Street before it was abandoned in 1932. It was converted to a Stadium in 1935.

A labor strife ignited when Bleecker was built. Workers toiled for 10 hours per day, 6 days a week for 62 1/2 cents per week pay. They rioted in 1851 asserting they were promised $1 a day.

Cast Iron Storehouse

Situated on the grounds of the Watervliet Arsenal is a rectangular building with a dimension of 100 x 196 feet, built in 1859. What makes it unique is that the entire building is made from cast iron.

Designed by Daniel Badger's Architectural Iron Works in New York City, this may be the only remaining example of an complete iron building still being used for its original purpose, although it now houses an arsenal museum.

Cast Iron for architecture became a booming business after the Civil War and continued untill the 1940's. You can still see hundreds of cast iron storefronts in our area.

Erie Canal

It's hard to deny that the construction of the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825, was a remarkable engineering achievement. Dug by farmers, local people, and immigrant labor, toiling 14 hours a day, they connected Buffalo to Albany with their sweat and labor. They even invented a few tools along the way to do the job better, like stump pulling devices, for example.

The Erie Canal, when completed, was 425 miles long, 40 feet wide, and only 4 feet deep on the average. Combine that with several lateral canals and the Champlain Canal, there were about 1000 miles of canals in the state.

The Erie Canal opened up New York State for commerce by providing an easy distribution route east and west and north and south. It quickly made New York Harbor the number one port in the country. Cities and industries were born and grew along the canal route..

There are many examples of engineering achievement related to the canal that you can visit such as the Rexford Aqueduct, Waterford locks of the Champlain Canal, and several examples of the original canal bed and locks throughout the Capital District. This was New York's Thruway of the 19th century.

Harmony Hills Complex, Boyden Turbines,

Harmony hills, located near the Cohoes Falls, was known as the largest and most complete cotton manufacturing establishment in the United States from the late 1860's through the 1880's. It was the single largest American producer of cotton fabrics for printed calicoes and fine cotton muslims, which were spun and woven from raw cotton right in the mills.

Inside Mill No. 3, built in 1866 -1872, are some of the largest vertical turbines in the United States. They took water power and converted it to mechanical power as it turned a system of belts to run various machines. Two of the turbines produced 800 horsepower each. In this one mill, 13 miles of belts powered 2700 looms and 130,000 spindles which could produce 100,000 yards of cloth every sixty hours.

The Boyden turbine design was the first to be manufactured in quantity in the US and became the standard in the textile industry from 1844 to about 1880. The two here were the largest built. This site is now a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.

Gasholder House

Located on the northwest corner of Jefferson St and Fifth Ave is a large round building that was built in 1873 for one purpose - to store and distribute coal gas throughout the city of Troy. This is one of the few remaining examples of a gasholder house that once was commonplace in northeastern cities.

The building is actually a brick sheath that surrounded an iron holder with a floating top that went or down depending on the amount of gas continued within. There were single, double, and triple lift type gasholders. The Troy gasholder was a two lift type. Both sections were about 100 feet round and 22 feet thick. At capacity it held 330,000 cubic feet of gas moving through pipes of 12 inches.

The building protected the gas holder from the elements and provided a sense of security to near by residents - this was at a time when gas was used to light homes and businesses.

It was built for the Troy Gas Light Company which maintained a 27 year monopoly on gas distribution, eventually merging with several others into the Troy Gas Company. This gasholder went out of service in the 1920's. The gasholder itself was sold in 1930 as scrap. All that remains is the house.

Mohawk & Hudson RailRoad

New York's successful Erie Canal had one glitch. Between the Mohawk and Hudson River, you had to navigate through several locks- a 40 mile route - and it took all day. George Featherstonhaugh, from Duanesburgh, decided to build a railroad between the two cities that would cut the time more than half. He announced the formation of the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road Company on December 28, 1825.

A 16 mile route was constructed between Albany and Schenectady through the Pine Bush. It opened for service August 9th, 1831, and was the first steam passenger train in the country running a regular schedule.

The original bed used blocks of stone with a wooden rail capped with iron. The first steam engine, the Dewitt Clinton, pulled modified stage coaches. The last remaining piece of this road bed can be seen on Washington Avenue Extension in Albany, but developments in front of it destroy the natural view of the landscape.

Whipple Cast and Wrought Iron Bowstring Truss Bridges

Squire Whipple, a Union College graduate, designed and patented the design of the Iron Arch Truss or Bowstring Truss in 1841 used in bridge construction. Known as Whipple Bridges, they were widely used over the Erie Canal, but when his patent ran out in 1869, the design was copied in every detail by other bridge makers and his patent infringed. He was unable to collect. Whipple was the first engineer to analyze correctly the stresses in a bridge truss.

There are three examples of Whipple bridges in our area. One spans the Normans kill in the village of Normansville, under Delaware Avenue. Another is on the campus of Union, while a third is part of a park in Rexford.

Next week: Seven ancient Wonders of Troy

©1999 Don Rittner